The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1887-07-28
The War Records omce.


OF cur civil war are preserved as iollows
The place where war "reminiscences
are made Is here 10 Washington. II is
little square. grsyslone building on
street Any sort Of war Renaissance tha
is wanted can he bad there on very shor
notice. II General Of either army
called upon by the CsafvtN, on some olhe
popular periodical, TO write his reeollee
lions Of tho war. be repairs at onee 10 ,hi
place TO gather up bis recollections. II j
a sort OF magic cell Which awakens laggiul
memory aud eorrocts populay isllaeies
General Wallace. General Beauregard
Colonel Allen. General Corso. Genera
Smith and General Sherman all so thor,
to pa, on their thinking caps; or, wher
they do not 80 10 person, they write fol
Information. The great wakeper OF rec
objections i, the War Records oilieo. III,
amount OF information they have collected
is almost inconceivable. Many old Wal
veterans so there and search out the old
documents before writing the history Of
what they saw. II is astonishing how
often they are forced by the cold, dried
and well-preserved facts to discard pet
notions about how things we're, aud are
obliged to revise their impressions about
things with which they had thought them.
selves entirely familiar.
There have been some remarkable meet.
ings here OF men who have fought hard
face TO face, but never met before. All
who have met this way have become
friends. They sit and talk the whole thing
over, correct each others errors OF memory
or are both set right by the record. Sher-
man, Sheridan. Beauregard, Hunt. Wal
lace, Long and the younger Lees have met
there. Sherman has drawn largely on
these records in some of bis writings
General Grant, while writing his book,
was in constant communication with Gen
eral Marcus ]. Wright, who dees the work
of collecting the Confederate records. A
large amount OF matter in the book was
got this way. He also furnished informa
lion to the Office and corrected some erro-
neous statements made. Jefferson Davis
has drawn upon this source OF information
Tor use in bis book. General Wright has
Ia hio ,noaaaoian a laitnr IoaL plinl y,,;,k
nothing but letters from Grant and Davis
upon the same subject.
Strange to say, Jtllerson Davis was
among the very first to respond to the call
of the Government for official papers OF
The Confederacy. He sent all his papers
as soon as be received the re.
luest When the work Of collecting the
'ecords was first begun, il was thought
hat they would never be able to get |
enough OF the Confederate papers to make
he record complete; but for nine years
low, General Wright has Leen writing TO
he surviving Confederate officers, or the |
amiles OF tflicers who were killed, and |
las succeeded in collecting fully as com
,lete . record oil the Confederate army as
le had OF the Federal. All letters or or
|ers written by officials or officers OF the
rmy during the war that relate at all to
he subject OF the war are collected and
ompiled and printed without editing.
When the work is all done there will have
o be another history OF the war written
rom these records. Many things that
ave been accepted as truths will be prov
d by these records to be absolutely false
hey will show that officers on both sides
ave been over estimated, and that other
Ulcers hay never got the credit that was
ue them.
There is SOL: of halo OF romance sur
ounding all the battles that puts history
] false light. Officers in writing re-
orts OF battles, under the excitement OF
40 time, have often fallen into the error
exaggaraling the enemy's forces. One
cry popular error which has been cor.
,cted by these records is with relation TO
le first battle Of Bull Hun. 1t has al
ays been believed that the Federal forces
n that occasion greatly outnumhered the
onfedcrates. 1t has gone into history 50.
q the North, as well as in the Sontb, it
as been accepted as fact not to be dig
T,
uted, and the Northern people have al
ays felt little ashamed that their large
my should have been defeated by so
uch smaller force Of Confederales.
hese records bling to light the fact that
Iere was not difference OF a thousand
en- between the strength Of the two
mics, aud of those actually engaged in
g battle the Confederates had within 800
as many men as the Federsls. There
c o number OF other cases where the
Ids OF battle have been accepted as very
layy when such was not the case, and
ere are the exposiiions Of plans aud pur-
,ses that throw an entirely new light on
story. Bcsides the official records that
II all, in course Of time, be- bound 10
any volumes. General Wright has 10 his
'ssession many private letters, written to
n by oiiceis u both sides, which viii
Of great Interest some time
Another very interesting thing is the
IleciiJn of photographs OF the Union =
d Confederate officers. The wall Of the
ON in which be works in covered with
ESQ photographs, aud several large size
ekiug boxes are filled with them. He
8 the picture OF almost any officer on !,
ber side any one would be likely 10
ut Ia all, he has about !, 300 Of them.
IA gepesais to colonies. captains, lieu
,aais, and even priystes Of certain fam
i corps. Federal and Confederate Of "
ers are hung together unfortunately !
the collection, with here snd there
ulster or prlest. All the famous CON-
nding officers, aud hundreds who won